GPRC President and CEO Don Gnatiuk announces retirement date

Monday, January 7th, 2019

GRANDE PRAIRIE – GPRC’s Board of Governors will start the process to search for a new President and CEO after it announced today that current President and CEO, Don Gnatiuk presented the Board with his intentions to retire from GPRC by next year.

“Don has worked tirelessly to advance GPRC for the region and the Board, and the previous GPRC Boards have all benefitted from his leadership and expertise. The Board accepted his timelines to retire from GPRC and will start the process to find his replacement this year,” said Natalia Reiman, Chair of the GPRC Board of Governors.
Gnatiuk committed to continue in his role until the Board successfully recruits a new President and CEO or until March 2020.

“The Board is grateful Don has agreed to continue to lead GPRC during this critical time while we conduct the search,” said Reiman. “The Board has given Don its full support to continue to lead the College for the next year. This is essential to ensure we don’t lose any momentum in the progress towards GPRC becoming degree-granting.”

“The past 12 years have been an incredible experience for me to be part of this region and GPRC,” said Gnatiuk. “I’m humbled by the support of the Board and its confidence in me to continue to do this work during the search for my successor.”

“When I arrived in Grande Prairie, I quickly heard from the community that its longtime goal for GPRC was to be a university and grant its own degrees. Last February, the community achieved that goal and it was the proudest day of my career,” said Gnatiuk. “Since then we’ve worked hard to put GPRC on the path to become degree-granting and I decided now is the right time for the Board to start the search for a new leader to take this institution into that future.”

Gnatiuk arrived at GPRC in 2007 as the eighth person to hold the President and CEO title. To date, he is the longest-serving person to hold the President and CEO title. He led the College through significant growth organizationally as well as geographically.

One of his first projects was to undertake changing the culture of the organization that created the current student-centred vision that guides faculty and staff today.

He also led the amalgamation of the Fairview campus and its trades and apprenticeship programs into GPRC from NAIT as well as the addition of the Learning Centres located in Edson, Hinton, Grande Cache and Jasper from Norquest College.

Also during this time, GPRC expanded its role into research and innovation in partnership with the community and industry. This led to the creation of the recently expanded GPRC National Bee Diagnostic Centre in Beaverlodge and ongoing research initiatives in the areas of environmental science and community enhancement.

During Gnatiuk’s time at GPRC, the College began work to expand health care programming. That programming will be located in the new regional hospital under construction on College-owned land west of its Grande Prairie campus, which was the result of a land deal negotiated with the Government of Alberta. This hospital partnership led to the College developing an international relationship with Holmesglen Institute, a college that also has a hospital on its campus, in Melbourne, Australia.

“I look forward to working with the Board of Governors, continuing the progress at GPRC, and working with the new Vice-President of Academics and Research who will be joining GPRC soon, during the next year,” said Gnatiuk. “It’s my goal to ensure our students, faculty and staff have a smooth transition to the next President and CEO so GPRC is well-positioned to continue to serve the residents of this region.”